Discrimination Against the Elderly in Health Care, Research Paper Example

There is a disparity in the field of nursing in regard to elderly treatment: elderly patients are being discriminated against in healthcare. Many hospitals and nursing care centers are being ageist in their treatment, or lack of treatment to elderly patients. Rai & Abdulla (2012) cite many examples of this ageism over the past few decades: poor treatment toward elderly is still a factorin the healthcare world and has prevalence in arenas such as coronary care units (p. 197), and intensive care units. Literature suggests that adults from age 65-70 were denied admission into these arenas by staff members; the reason given was that the staff believed that they could not care for all age groups, and that the efficacy of such treatments the hospitals had to offer would not benefit such an age group. This blatantly points to elderly being denied needed medical care based on someone else’s decision that their lives were not worth saving. The elderly were being treated poorly, or not being treated at all because nurses and administrators believed that using the equipment on the elderly was a misuse of that equipment as it could be better used on younger patients (p. 198).

Egregious treatment of the elderly is pervasive even among the intensive care unit (ICU) nurses: Rai & Abdulla (2012) state that nurses will sometimes refuse treatment to elderly in their ICUs simply because, “intensive care could be deleterious, or it may be squandering resources” (p. 198). This means that the nurses not only hold the belief that ICUs will be harmful for elderly patients but that the use of equipment in the ICUs may be a waste of the company’s time and effort as the mortality rate of the elderly is high (much higher than a younger patient) and therefore, the nurses’ time would be better suited in other areas, and on/for other patients (p. 198).

Addressing this problem with bring about much needed social change. New guidelines that are being put in place in such organizations as hospitals and ICUs will bring about less elderly negligence or ageism.These guidelines would take into account predilections for falls, disease, illness, and infection for the elderly patient. These assessments are multi-disciplinaryand as such will bring about a more well-rounded social change (Bookman & Kimbrel, 2011, p. 136). The goal of such a guideline would be to broaden the knowledge base of medical staff as to treatments for elderly patients as well as toensure “that patients are treated as individuals with dignity and respect taking into account their wishes and those of their family and carers” (Rai & Abdulla, 2012, p. 198).

In the recent decade certain guidelines are being instituted in organizations to ensure these needs and ideals are being met. Askar (2011) assessed the use of ACOVE (Assessing Care Of Vulnerable Elderly) through quality indicators that were developed in order to ensure proper care of the elderly. Askar discovered, through 17 studies, that quality of care per condition varied greatly among those areas that were tested. For instance, quality of care for medication scored higher than quality of care for dementia.

The lack of care for the elderly isn’t found solely within the hospital dynamic, but government funding sources such as Medicare and Medicaid are sorely lacking in proper care as well (Bookman & Kimberly, 2011, p. 130). Since Medicaid is the “largest source of payment for nursing home care” (p. 130) it seems arbitrary that its tenants are forced to compensate where Medicare leaves off. Medicaid is often used as supplemental care for patients whose Medicare won’t cover the bill, and the percentage is staked against the elderly in this scenario. This negligence was confronted with the Affordable Care Act (Sorrell, 2012, p. 3) but lack of organization in the government infrastructure has left many elderly patients still struggling to either make ends meet or worse, suffer through their pain while being turned away from unknowledgeable facilities.

References

Askari, M. (2011). Assessing quality of care of elderly  patients using the ACOVE quality indicator set: a systematic review. PLOS One. Retrieved from http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0028631

Bookman, A., & Kimbrel, D. (2011). Families and elder care in the twenty-firstcentury. Futureofchildren 21(2): pp. 117-140.

Rai, G. S., & Abdulla, A. (2012). Treatment of older people. AvMA Medical & Legal Journal 18(5): pp. 197-201.

Sorrell, J., (November 9, 2012) “Ethics: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Ethical Perspectives in 21st Century Health Care” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 18 No. 1.